Parallax Abstraction wrote on May 9, 2012, 14:12:Given that Facebook has openly admitted that they have no idea how to monetize mobile users of their site which is quickly becoming how the majority will access it says a lot. I also wonder how many investors are going to be smart enough to sell their Apple stock because the fashion bubble on them bursts and their sales drop to a sustainable level. That stock is going to drop like a rock when the current unrealistic growth plateaus.

What Apple has going for it is an absolutely ridiculous profit margin (in the range of 30%)... that gives them a lot of room to play with going forward. If sales drop off, they can always reduce prices or introduce hardware with narrower margins if need be and remain profitable.

Agreed on Facebook with mobile users, though. I actually read through the entirety of their S-1 filing (almost 200 pages!), and the thing that struck me the most was the fact that Facebook in the past year has had their revenues roughly triple but their profit has slightly declined (not profit margins, gross profit). This raises all sorts of alarm bells in my head, everything from possible problems with their organizational structure to overhiring for areas where growth was not as fast as anticipated to, going back to the Zynga example, overpaying for hot companies ($1B for Instagram? Really?).